


if you disrupt the current, then prepare to feel the static

by redbrunja



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Ladies saving ladies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 00:56:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2089674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbrunja/pseuds/redbrunja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The kidnapping attempt took place in the lobby of Avengers Tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if you disrupt the current, then prepare to feel the static

The kidnapping attempt took place in the lobby of Avengers Tower.

 

Pepper was on the phone with Maria, heading towards the waiting town car, when a pretty girl with a brown ponytail stepped a bit too close to Pepper, and tossed something at Pepper's feet.

 

There was a metallic clatter and then white exploded across her field of vision.

 

Pepper first thought was, _my death would not be good for SI stock._

Her second was, _Tony is going to be_ furious.

 

Her next was, _I'M FURIOUS._

 

The white wasn't from an incendiary;  it was some kind of flame retardant agent that clung to Pepper.

 

Natasha's info dump of SHIELD/HYDRA information had caused Pepper a lot of problems, professionally. She'd been called before congress to be raked over the coals for Stark Industries' contracts with SHIELD, SI intellectual property had been released to the public (the litigations from that were going to continue for the next two decades, _at least_ ), and the stock had dropped predictably. And that wasn't even going into the resources she'd allocated to help Maria keep SHIELD loyalists alive and out of prison. (She pretended she didn't know that Maria was also hunting down HYDRA operatives and that those that Maria found were never going to see the inside of a courtroom).

 

She never considered that extemis details were out in the public, as well, and that some stupid idiots would think that meant they had a shot at her.

 

Someone grabbed her arm and she swung her briefcase at them.  It was knocked out of her hands, as a foot slammed at the back of her knee. She fell, and before she hit the ground, someone had tight hands on her upper arms, was dragging her towards the entrance.

 

Pepper had one hand free and she clawed at her face, cleared enough gunk off her face that she could see, could suck in a ragged breath, could calm herself enough that she could reach for the fire that still licked beneath her skin.

 

Someone -multiple someones - screamed and dropped her.

 

Pepper smelled flesh burning as she scrambled away.

 

She twisted around in time to see the brown-haired girl fumble a gun out of her jacket with burned and bleeding hands. Her eyes were fixed on Pepper, and she never saw Natasha.

 

Natasha, who, with a terribly calm expression on her face, put two bullets through the back of her neck.

 

The body dropped at Pepper's feet, gun clattering against the marble floor.

 

Natasha kicked it out of the dead woman's reach, the motions automatic.

 

"I hope you don't mind that I'm early," Natasha said, still ferociously calm.

 

"Not at all," Pepper responded automatically. She started to shake and the alarms began to whoop.

 

Natasha reached out, helped Pepper to her feet, and didn't even flinch at the veins of red still running beneath Pepper's skin.

 

"Sadly, it looks like you have a date with a decontamination shower before we can get drinks," Natasha continued.

 

Pepper grabbed at her sense of humor with her fingernails. "I don't think so," she disagreed. "I fully intend to take a martini in there with me."

 

Over Natasha's shoulder, Maria was yelling at someone to "fucking turn that useless alarm off" and directing the chaos that was the lobby. Plus side of being the center of a catastrophe; someone else had to deal with the clean up. (Another facet of Tony's genius revealed.)

 

"And lots of gin," Pepper continued. "Lots. Like, an entire bottle of gin."


End file.
